[Alpha-Bugzilla Bug 1047] RFE: new global preference for "Default Fill Column"

[Alpha-Bugzilla <alp...@ic...>]

http://rutherglen.ics.mq.edu.au/~alpha-bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1047




------- Additional Comments From cup...@ea...  2009-01-01 07:27 AEST -------
I used to have the bad habit of proposing a solution (complete with code) before the scope of the 
problem had been properly outlined and discussed.  In this case, I wanted to address the logic of 
adjusting "global" preferences when identical and over-riding mode preferences also exist.  

There is a class of preferences which have global values but are frequently over-ridden by mode values.  
I don't think we've ever formally listed them, but they would include

    Fill Column
    Tab Size
    Line Wrapping
    Indent on Return

Many mode maintainers have defined these as a convenience to the user, and the logic of mode prefs 
over-riding global prefs is both sound and documented:  the global value is only used when the mode 
hasn't defined them.  (In theory nearly all global preferences can be over-ridden, but in practice only a 
limited number of them are commonly defined by several modes.)

This RFE was supposed to focus on how we determine the initial value of the mode prefs.  Perhaps the 
question that I wanted to resolve was this:

"If a user changes the global value for a preference, how should that affect the current default values 
for mode preferences?"

At present, each mode must specify a hard-coded value, and it never inherits any changes to the global 
preference.  The rest of this discussion will use "Fill Column" as the primary example, although the 
same logic can be applied to the others.

Certain statistical packages used to expect lines to only be 72 or 80 characters long, and would object 
during processing if that wasn't the case.  But in many cases the default mode pref values often seem 
to have been determined by the editing tastes of the mode's developer, rather than on any strict 
requirements of a client application.

As a mode developer, what I wanted was a way to say

"I'll define this mode preference for 'fill column' in case the user wants to over-ride the global value, 
but I don't really care about the initial value.  I'll just defer to the global value for the default."

As a user, what I wanted was a way to say

"I would like all of the modes to use '77' as the default 'fill column' value unless I specifically say 
otherwise for a specific mode."

I suspect these concerns are not widely shared by others -- the current regime disturbed my sense of 
order and logic more than anything else, and only applies to a small class of preferences.  Unless there 
are strong opinions in favor of changing the status quo, this RFE should be resolved as "won't fix."


 
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